See All of You This Thursday, April 23 & 8pm

I heard there was some confusion as to whether or not we were meeting this Thursday night @ 8:00pm. No confusion needed. We are!!!

See all of you in the Green Room with your homework in hand @ 8:00pm. It's the room to the left of and behind the stage in the auditorium.

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If you didn't notice, I changed the time from 7 to 8pm. I have a meeting that I forgot about at 6:30pm. Thank you for being flexible.
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Thursday??

So, since Pastor Jon will not be around this Thursday would any one like to get together and go over some of this stuff, especially the book?? I know it would help me work through some issues if I can talk about parts that were confusing, difficult and very encouraging. Maybe we could all just meet at a Peet's Coffee or Starbucks and talk through this stuff. Post a comment with your thoughts and/or ideas. This book as been a great challenge to me and my heart, I hope the LORD is working through His Spirit with this book as well :)

Shalom

Prayerful Leadership

Hey guys! Oh it feels good to finally get up in this blog! Just following chapter 12 and using my time wisely, application. But what I want to encourage all of us on is the chapter 'Prayer and Leadership'.

I thought this chapter was awesome and needs to be considered a great deal. As I was looking over my heart and this topic I found myself convicted because I personally do not spend enough time in prayer. As Oswald Sanders said, "And yet the most advanced leader is conscious of the possibility of endless development in his prayer life." The only way we can find this endless development is if we are truly devoted to prayer, just like the famous Colossians 4:2-

2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

This is something that cannot be taken lightly. Prayer is a "... Strenuous spiritual exercise that demands the utmost mental discipline and concentration"(pg 86). Being a leader is a serious task, so prayer needs to be a serious commitment. If we do not take it as serious as portrayed in God's word, we will be weak in our prayer and get extremely lazy. But as read in this book, we need to give prayer a large section of our day, in all things we do. We see this example in Luke 6:12-

12One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

Wow! What extreme commitment we find in the Son of God, I don't know about you guys but an all nighter of prayer and meditation is impossible for me! Or is it? My flesh says its impossible but God gives us the strength. Remember that it is not our flesh in whom we find our strength, but the Spirit that Christ has given us, so lets pray in the Spirit! We cannot rely on ourselves, it would make such things impossible.

Without prayer we will be powerless leaders who are not relying on God but on ourselves, which makes us no leaders at all. We cannot take things such as this in our own hands, but rely on the power and energy of the Holy Spirit. To echo Oswald Sanders again on page 87 near the middle-

"For its superhuman task, prayer demands more than human power. We have the Spirit of power as well as the Spirit of prayer. All the human energy of heart, mind, and will can achieve great human results, but praying in the Holy Spirit releases supernatural resources."

This chapter was really exciting to read and blessed me a great deal! Hopefully it does this to all of you too, this topic is so serious and we cannot be hypocrites standing up leading as a Shepherd and not relying on THE Shepherd. We do this through prayer and the reading of His word. So lets pray continually in a way that mimics this chapter. I know I bounced around a lot but there was much to say but little time to say it all.

4th Service @ CBC

Hey men! A couple things:

1. Don't forget that from now on, we're meeting the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month now so change your calendars.
2. Don't forget to be searching the internet for evangelism / apologetics sites to help us rebuild howtogeteternallife.com in time for when we start showing that series at the 4th Service in 2 weeks. Get me those ideas so I can start messing with them on the site itself.
   
3. Also, don't forget that we need male leadership @ the 4th Service, as well as men stationed on the sides to field questions, counseling and prayer requests so email me and let me know if you're interested.

I love you men! Take care, and during this time of year become or stay amazed at the Cross.

Leaders Read!

I really do value Sanders's book; I can see why it's hailed as such a classic. This week, I particulary enjoyed the chapter, "Leaders and Reading." It is true that God has given us so many recourses to know Him better, we really are without excuse. I find it amazing that the printed word is still the dominate channel for learning (Christian and secular). I guess this makes sense as God wrote His Word for us! Books will never become extinct. Since I got saved, I found a love for reading that I never had before. I can't stop reading books on Christian theology, leadership, commentaries, church history, etc. I have been on a trip the past four years just soaking up every Christian book I can get my hands on. Sanders had a great point about not reading lots of books, but instead mastering few. This is a great thought as I sometimes get so overwhelmed with all of my books I still have to finish. It's still very enjoyable, yet it sometimes gives me hearburn!